[MSJ] - Day 9: First Time at the Beach

Today was Friday and my class started at 10:30 instead of 9:00, which was great for me because I needed the extra sleep. After showering, it was about ten already, so the dining hall was closed. I decided that I would grab some food at the Starbucks which is in the same building as my class and has probably been the largest temptation and drain on my wallet so far.

The Starbucks in the econ building. (closed in the afternoon)

According to the weekly schedule provided to us by our professor, today's class only consisted of one lecture which acts as a part two to what we started yesterday afternoon. The lectures cover the idea of the "consumer's problem", which is that essentially as a buyer you only have a certain amount of money (well some of us), and you can't buy everything, so you have to decide what to buy and in what quantities. While this seems like something simple you do every time you go to Costco, if you want to model it economically you have to take into account things like the idea that the more you have of a good the less it is worth to you. For example, if you live in a mansion but live off two Top Ramen a day, you would probably be willing to give up a lot of square feet of housing to have a little more food. By analyzing these theories/rules of buying goods an economist can determine, based on the preferences of the consumer, what the optimal combination of goods the buyer should buy.

The lecture ended at noon, and we had the rest of the afternoon off. We went to the food trucks by the quad for lunch because they were closer than the dining hall and my croissant from this morning was far away. I had a doner kebab which was expensive and slightly disappointing.

Food truck!

Afterward, my group for econ went to a lounge to work on our homework. We worked for a solid three hours and got the rough draft of the entire assignment done. I then went to the gym with a few friends to work out before dinner. Since it was a Friday, instead of eating at the dining hall, the summer program caters to food from a local restaurant. Today it was Eataly, an – you guessed it – Italian restaurant. They had very good food, with the grilled broccolini and the meatballs being my two favorites.

Since it was so warm this evening, roughly 85°, the RAs had organized a trip to a beach on the lake. A lot of people went, and we went swimming for a long time in the not so cold Lake Michigan waters. Compared to beaches in Northern California, the conditions were downright balmy. On the way to the lake we had walked past several Thai restaurants, and four of us that were hungry stopped at one of them to have a bite to eat. Afterward, back to the dorms.

From left to right, Jen, Ethan (with his eyes closed), and me. Clara took the picture

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to enjoying even more food at the Taste of Chicago Festival. Hear all about it in tomorrow's blog!